1. Field
The present invention relates to website browsing and instant messaging activities on cellular telephones, mobile devices, and other types of embedded devices.
2. General Background
In the last two decades, the deployment and use of mobile computing devices has grown such that a large percentage of people living in the United States, Europe, Asia, and other places have a least one device. Mobile phones, personal digital assistant's (PDAs), laptop computers and a host of similar devices are carried by people world wide as computer and connectivity devices.
At the same time, advancements in microprocessor technology and in communications protocol have provided many tools that are included in addition to the basic functions of the mobile devices. For example, mobile phones are equipped with games, address books, instant messaging systems, and web browsing system. Similarly, PDAs come equipped with similar suites of software in addition to the core systems and functions.
To minimize the size of these devices, extend the operating time (limited by batteries) and make them not only more attractive to carry, and other considerations, the computing capabilities are necessarily limited. The input mechanisms are often limited when compared to more traditional computing systems. These include numeric keypads on phones and keyboards operated by thumb in a “hunt and peck” method. More advanced PDA's have touch screens for input and output. These factors contribute to often cumbersome switching between application programs. Special applications are devised to provide functions and services such as instant messaging, email, and web browsing to compensate for the deficiencies. The mobile applications have been devised following the model used on the larger fixed based predecessor; the familiar computer. The application model in combination with limitations of the mobile platform has resulted in mobile software programs that allow users to execute one program at any given time with little or no visibility into the activities of other important programs executing concurrently. For instance, the user may be browsing the web or viewing a newly arrived instant message, but not simultaneously. These systems all suffer more or less equally from difficulty knowing when to switch between applications.
Web browsers comprise a class of software applications for transmitting data to-and-from server computers, as well as rendering documents returned by the those computers on the display of a local computer. A web browser enables a user to display and interact with instant, images, and other information typically located on a web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network.
Similarly, a microbrowser (sometimes minibrowser or mobile browser) is a web browser designed for use on a handheld device such as a PDA or mobile phone. Microbrowsers are optimized so as to display internet content most effectively for small screens on portable devices and have small file sizes to accommodate the low memory capacity and low-bandwidth of wireless handheld devices.
Instance messaging client applications comprise a class of software applications for transmitting instant messages from one person to another over a computer or telephone network.